I don't know about all y'all, but it is too hot here in SWMO (southwest Missouri for the uninitiated). So, to riff off my friend Silver's post this morning, I'm going to talk about not-cooking - or cooking with as little extra heat in the house as possible.
Last night, I used my Foreman grill to make pork chops. That's one way to have a meal and not heat up the house too much. Of course, they were boneless. I'm not sure how well I'd be able to cook bone-in porkies on that thing. Boneless took about 5 minutes. Bone-in would probably take way longer. And I cut my own boneless pork chops, but that's a story for another day. With the pork chops, I microwaved leftover mashed potatoes. Low heat all around.
I've also found that using the crockpot cuts the added heat. Last week, I bought a small roasting chicken. I took that bugger and shoved it in the crockpot with seasoning and butter, and let it cook for 4 hours. Super yummy, without loads of heat leaking into my atmosphere. Plus, afterward, I had loads of cold chicken to use on salads, sandwiches, etc.
Speaking of sandwiches, if you've never made a grilled cheese on a Foreman grill, you're missing out. Super easy stuff there. I like to cut roast chicken and put it on my grilled cheese. Mmmm.
Tonight, I think I'm going to make the fixings for Big Salad night. (Not much to make really.) I'll lay out a spread of cut up ham, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, croutons... whatever we want on our salads, it'll be laid out on the counter for us. I'd put out chicken, but I ate the last of that yesterday for lunch.
If you know me, you know I like to bake. This is a problematic like in the summer time. To address my baking urges without baking myself and Hubs, I try to keep my baking to the mornings. Unfortunately, that means I have to muster the gumption before the gumption is even awake, but I do what I have to do.
I saw something on FB the other day where a woman made cookies using the INSIDE of her car on a particularly hot and sunny day. I'm not quite going to that extreme. There are ways around getting overheated and still having something yummy to eat, though.
And now I'm hungry. Time to go forage for something cold to eat. ;o)
What about you? Any tips or tricks for eating without baking?
You saw my tricks though I do use my Hamilton Beach grill for burgers, patty melts, and such. LG doesn't do much green leafy salad but I can occasionally talk him into a chicken pasta salad. Only heat comes from boiling the pasta. I use a lid on the pan to hasten boiling and then only boil long enough for pasta to go al dente then I turn off the burner and cover the pan to let pasta continue cooking to the texture we like, which is not too much more than al dente. Anyway, I should pull out the crockpot and do some stuff in it because you're right. They don't put out much heat either!
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